CONTINUITY. 



ADDRESS AS PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIA- 

 TION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Nottingham, 1866. Third Edition. 



IF our rude predecessors, who at one time inhabited the 

 caverns which surround this town, could rise from their graves 

 and see it in its present state, it may be doubtful whether 

 they would have sufficient knowledge to be surprised. 



The machinery, almost resembling organic beings in deli- 

 cacy of structure, by which are fabricated products of world- 

 wide reputation, the powers of matter applied to give motion 

 to that machinery, are so far removed from what must have 

 been the conceptions of the semi-barbarians to whom I have 

 alluded, that they could not look on them with intelligent 

 wonder. 



Yet this immense progress has all been effected step by 

 step, now and then a little more rapidly than at other times ; 

 but, viewing the whole course of improvement, it has been 

 gradual, though moving in an accelerated ratio. But it is not 

 merely in those branches of natural knowledge which tend 

 to improvements in economical arts and manufactures that 

 science has made great progress. In the study of our own 

 planet and the organic beings with which it is crowded, and 

 in so much of the universe as vision, aided by the telescope, 

 has brought within the area of observation, the present cen- 

 tury has surpassed any antecedent period of equal duration. 



It would be difficult to trace out all the causes which have 

 led to the increase of observational and experimental know- 

 ledge. 



Among the more thinking portion of mankind the gratifi- 



